Identification products such as smart cards and RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) tags may be used widely in fields such as transport (ticketing, road tolling, baggage tagging), finance (debit and credit cards, electronic purse, merchant card), communications (SIM card for GSM phone), and tracking (access control, inventory management, asset tracking) International standard ISO14443A is the industry standard for contactless smart cards. ISO14443A-compliant products such as MIFARE™ (see for example www.semiconductors.philips.com/markets/identification/products/mifare/index.html#applications) provide RF communication technology for transmitting data between a card or tag and a reader device. For example, in electronic ticketing for public transport, travelers just wave their card over a reader at the turnstiles or entry point, benefiting from improved convenience and speed in the ticketing process. Such products are set to be the key to individual mobility in the future, supporting multiple applications including road tolling, airline tickets, access control and many more.
Evolving from a combination of contactless identification and networking technologies, Near Field Communication (NFC) (see for example www.nfc-forum.org) is a very short-range wireless technology, for distances measured in centimeters, and is optimized for intuitive, easy and secure communications between various devices without user configuration. In order to make two devices communicate, users bring them close together or even make them touch. The devices' NFC interfaces will automatically connect and configure themselves to form a peer-to-peer network. NFC can also bootstrap other protocols like Bluetooth™ or Wireless Ethernet (WiFi) by exchanging the configuration and session data. NFC is compatible with contactless smart card platforms. This enables NFC devices to read information from these cards, making contactless smart cards the ideal solution for bringing information and vouchers into the NFC world. NFC devices can also operate like a contactless card making them compatible with the huge installed infrastructure of ISO14443A-compliant systems. This functionality is called card emulation. Secure NFC combines NFC applications with smart card security. Devices with secure NFC act like a contactless smart card with cryptographic capabilities. This means that confidential data, and data that represents values, is stored in a secure memory area and always stays on the card. Authentication is performed by the NFC device itself and transmitted data can be encrypted by the NFC device using a private encryption key stored in the device's secure memory.
The Near Field Communication (NFC) Forum is a non-profit industry association founded by Nokia Corporation, Royal Philips Electronics and Sony Corporation to advance the use of NFC short-range wireless interaction in consumer electronics, mobile devices and PCs. The NFC Forum will promote implementation and standardization of NFC technology to ensure interoperability between devices and services.
A near field communication tag having an additional interface for wire-based communication (also referred to as wired interface) may be known for accessories or devices to speed up or to make more secure the connection handover use case based on for example Bluetooth or WiFi technologies. In this use case, the NFC tag may be connected to a host using a wired interface and may further be communicating with a reader device using NFC. It may be desired to transfer data, such as configuration data, for configuring a Bluetooth communication, from the reader device to the NFC tag and from there to the host, wherein the transfer from the NFC tag to the host may be wire-based using the wired interface. Thereby, the host may be installed in an appliance, such as a printer or a desktop computer, which may require receiving configuration information for configuring the Bluetooth connection to the reader device. In other use cases, the configuration data may for example be utilized to configure the printer or any other device for proper operation.
There may be a need for a NFC tag, a host device (second device), a communication system and a method performed by the communication system in which an interplay between the NFC tag, the second device and also a first device is improved, in particular regarding required time and complexity.